Dualism

Dualism

Fydor Dostoevsky and Edgar Allen Poe both use similar literary devices.  One of the literary devices that are evident in both authors literature is dualism.  They express dualism through the characters and symbols.  The characters have dual natures through the doppelganger theory, sober/drunk states of mind, and being/non being.

The German word doppelganger directly translates to double walker.  Doppelganger is therefore an apparition of oneself or someone who we know or have never met before.  It could also act as the missing part of you.  In both cases within Dostoevsky’s and Poe’s literature the characters are aquatinted with each other.  In Crime and Punishment it is evident through the characters of Raskolnikov and Sonia.  They contrast between religion and philosophy and in result equal immortality and redemption.  Sonia is forced to prostitute herself but her religion keeps her appearing as a person who is doing right and eventually will see redemption.  On the other hand, Raskolnikov thinks that his philosophy excuses his crime but in the end is tormented by guilt and is convinced he deserves redemption. Sonia is the missing piece to Raskolnikov because without Sonia’s religion he could not redeem himself.  It is a different case when it comes to Poe’s short story The Cask of Amontillado.  Montresor becomes so aliened from his physical reality that he must murder that side of himself which is Fortunato.  Montresor and Fortunato act as one person divided against himself and it results in silence once Fortunato dies because it acts as suicide for Montresor. Evidently, this is different from Dostoevsky because Raskolnikov needs Sonia to benefit him but Montresor on the other hand thinks he needs to get rid of Fortunato to benefit himself. Doppelganger is not the only evidence of dual nature, as it is also evident through the characters state of being drunk compared to sober.

        Alcohol plays a major role in both Dostoevsky’s and Poe’s literature.  There is plenty of alcohol in both authors writing but they use it in different ways.  Dostoevsky uses it as a symbol of weakness, addiction, abuse, and vulnerability.  Being drunk usually also results in characters doing actions that they would not do while being sober and this is when the ultimate dualism comes into play.  In Poe’s short story The Black Cat many people view it as a lesson being learned that alcohol can make you evil.  The narrator is a very kind and gentle lover of animals while sober but changes into a vicious monster that murders animals while drunk. “One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth .. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket” (Poe “Black Cat”).  The narrator commits this atrocity while under the influence of alcohol.  His drunken side takes over control of his life and destroys everything he knows and loves but ends with destroying himself.  Dostoevsky and Poe use alcohol as dualism but both in different ways.  Another state of mind that affects the characters dual natures is the characters states between being and non being.